As individuals, there are many ways we can be less wasteful at home and incorporate best practices for living with a zero waste mindset. This includes rethinking, reducing, reusing, recycling, and composting waste.
Rethink: Examine your relationship with waste
Adopting a Zero Waste lifestyle is all about rethinking your relationship with “waste.” Rather than accepting that what you buy will generate landfilled waste, consider how you can rethink your purchasing decisions to prevent waste. Whether it’s food, clothes, school or office supplies, toys, electronics, etc., ask yourself:
- Do I really need this item?
- Can I repair something I already have?
- Can I buy this item used to meet my needs?
- Can I buy this item with less packaging material?
- Can I buy this item in a package I know can be recycled?
In other words, consider what waste you would be generating with each purchase and if that waste can be avoided or at minimum recycled.
Tips to Rethink waste:
- Choose bulk instead of individually packaged items
- Shop locally to reduce waste from shipping
- Hold off on upgrading your electronics
- Choose a recyclable version or compostable version of an item
Reduce: Limit the “stuff” in your life
Reducing means to limit the amount of waste that you produce. Or, what waste in your life could you avoid altogether?
Tips to Reduce waste:
- Stop Unwanted Junk Mail
- Avoid individually packaged items or other single-use goods
- Skip the straw if you don’t need one
- Buy bulk packaged goods
- Bring a reusable bag instead of using single-use plastic bags
- Bring your own to-go containers to restaurants to pack leftovers
Reuse: Extend the life of an item
Reusing means to consider how an item can continue to be useful either to you or others to extend its life and keep it out of landfill.
Tips to Reuse waste:
- Avoid buying new when possible
- Double check your product for a warranty
- Consider thrifting at local reuse stores or through local online groups
- Repair broken items
- Sew a patch or buttons to repair clothes or make a new look
- Use glue or another sealant to fix cracks in items that can be reused
- Look up a video on how to repair an item
- Find a local repair shop or join a Fix-It workshop for broken electronic or mechanical items you can’t repair yourself
- Save glass sauce jars and use them to pack your lunch or leftovers
- Stained or outgrown shirts can be used as kitchen cloths or made into tote bags
- Create new recipes like stocks, sauces, and croutons out of food scraps and leftovers
Recycle and Compost: Create a new life
Recycling and composting both mean to take materials that would otherwise be thrown away and process them into something new. That could be making new carpet from plastic bottles, creating toilet paper from used notebook paper, or composting food scraps to create healthy soil. However, with both recycling and composting, it’s important to know what programs are available to you and what materials can and cannot go in these programs.
Learn how to Recycle Right
Not everything can be recycled. Check out our Waste Wizard and Recycle Right guidelines.
Learn how to Compost at Home
By composting at home, you can feed your garden with nutrients while reducing waste and methane in the landfill.
Learn about Compost Drop-Off and Commercial Composting Services
Davidson County residents can take their food waste to any Metro convenience center at no additional charge.